Israeli army launches war room to battle hackers

By: Shifra Unger
The Israeli army has deployed full time computer and web security experts to battle hackers inside a newly launched war room, according to an official statement from the Israeli army.

Hackers are working for the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, while criminal elements around the world are trying to down websites of Israeli banks.

Israel also recently suffered an unprecedented cyber attack in retaliation for the Israeli army operation in Gaza. The IDF Computer Services Division responded to the increase in the number of cyber attacks on Israel by creating a special war room to protect their computer systems by detecting cyber attacks by hostile elements by launching counter attacks.

The initiative makes the IDF, the only army in the world to operate a war room specifically for cyber attacks. “We certainly saw a significant increase in the number of attempts to challenge our systems,” a military source said. According to the source, there is a threat of one hacker or an army of hackers planting malicious software which are activated when the order is given to shut off the systems.

The new war room will be staffed 24 hours a day with about 20 soldiers who graduated from the IDF Cyber ​​Shield Unit. The war room will allow the IDF to monitor and respond to any attempts of hacking, at all levels, from army equipment computers to the IDF Chief of Staff personal computer.